Souvenir Balloon
Mail. We will carry balloon mail on the mission.
Click to find out how
you can get one. There is a surprise bonus for
early reservations and a few are still left...

Don Piccard continues his family's tradition of research. The Piccards have been called "The most celebrated scientific exploring family of the Twentieth Century".
It is a complicated family tree, but this should show
"Who's on First":

Don Piccard is credited as being the
father of modern sport hot-air ballooning. Here are more of
Don Piccard's many accomplishments

Husband
and wife record

In 1934, husband and wife team Jean and
Jeannette Piccard (parents of XAP pilot Don Piccard) reached
the recorded altitude of 57,579 feet

Don
Piccard launches G.T. Schjeldahl Co. balloon, the
"Golden Bear", on his official F.A.I. World Class Record gas
flight to 34,642 ft., July19,1961 Don used an open basket with a liquid oxygen converter provided by Pioneer Central Division of the Bendix Corporation.

World
Absolute Record for balloons?

The
flight will be sanctioned with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA)
and Federation Aeronautic International (FAI) for homologation as
the World Balloon Absolute Altitude Record.

We
will do thiseven
though it will be far different from any previous tropospheric or
stratospheric ascension and will utilize aerostatic apparatus hardly
recognizable as a balloon, apparently not fitting into any of the
officially recognized categories.

While
the object and motivation for XAP is not an FAI Record, per se, nor
even a Guinness Book World Record, the flight will far surpass any
previous efforts.This
flight, into the base realms of "Space", will exit the
stratosphere and penetrate well into the mesosphere for the first
time by any non-powered craft. That sovereign territory of the
limitless space world has previously only had transitory visitors ,
or been passed through, by rocket planes and orbiting spacecraft.

XAP will linger there for the first time.

To characterize this expedition merely as a
record attempt would trivialize the real value and intent.

Congratulations to Cousin Dr. Bertrand Piccard on his 2005 Lindbergh
Foundation Award for his work with the Winds of Hope project.

XAP is a private non-government research effort that will
depend on private contributions. XAP will be pleased to
cooperate with any appropriate commercial or research entity that
would like to be involved. Title sponsorship opportunities are
open.